


The Size of the Cloth

by aHostileRainbow



Series: Mostly BAMF: A Collection of Small Fries Kicking Ass (Literally or Figuratively) [15]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst and Tragedy, BAMF Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood), BAMF Pitch Black (Guardians of Childhood), Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, First Meetings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 09:11:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11145369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aHostileRainbow/pseuds/aHostileRainbow
Summary: Written as backstory forTender Fires, but readable on its own. That first meeting between Jack and Pitch.About two hundred and fifty years into spirithood, Jack watched a little girl do a terrible, extraordinary thing...and he got attached. For five years he haunted her steps until her life was cut short.





	The Size of the Cloth

Brenna was seven years old when Jack first met her - they played in the snow, then he watched her be belted by her father as she curled over her younger brother. He watched her walk through the following day straight-backed and smiling while everyone missed the spots of blood that seeped through her sweater. Her wince as she sat down at school went ignored, her extra layers and caution in gym class unnoticed. Her sole friend asked not a single question when Brenna smiled with all her teeth and a lion's fierceness as she opened her too small lunch. By the following week he would have seen the more normal size of little Brandon's lunch and understood.

But right then, he wasn't understanding. He was furious. If it would have helped, he could have snowed the entire school in with a smile and saved her from going back to that house.

Instead he watched and he waited, and when a figure draped in shadow appeared beside her bed two weeks later as she whimpered, he realized - this. This was what he had been waiting for. Finally, someone he could _hit_.

* * *

Jack didn't ask for a name. This wasn't his first time meeting another spirit, but for once he didn't care about having a real conversation with someone who answered back, didn't care about his loneliness, didn't care about the rare chance to make a connection. This guy showed up and Brenna's whimpers turned to screams, clearly trapped in a nightmare as bad as her waking one and Jack _refused_. There was nothing he could do to protect Brenna from her father, but a spirit? A spirit who would come just to smile at her terror?

Jack could do something about that. The nightmare spirit went down with a surprised grunt as Jack's ice-coated fist slammed right into his gut, barely rolling out of the way as the point of Jack's staff cracked the floorboard right where his left eye had been. He dissipated into shadow and Jack snarled the foulest words he knew in Czech, spinning to try and keep the whole room in view. He wasn't fast enough, arms still wispy with darkness wrapping steel-strong around his chest, pinning his arms and his staff.

Jack was surprised that was all the response he got, but still too frustrated to hesitate as he _twisted_ , ripping one arm free with all the dead strength in him, a sharp elbow sinking ruthlessly into the already bruised gut of his opponent. A hiss and retreat only incensed him further, until the sheen of stained metal curving toward his face got his attention. Dropping, he rolled and leaped into the air at the spirit's left, bringing down his staff like a club - which it might as well have been, so thickly coated in frost. There weren't a lot of spirits who could fly, and Jack knew better than to let an advantage go.

Still, this guy was too fast, the newly appeared scythe in his hands swinging up to meet Jack's staff like he hadn't had to think. That was Jack's first indication this spirit was _old_. Certainly older than him because this wasn't his first fight and he knew that even spirits had to work long and hard for reflexes like that.

His moment of distraction forced him to drop, bending back and nearly in half, as the scythe disengaged and swung for his chest almost faster than he could track. The move was a blessing in disguise as his new angle let him see the tendrils of shadow snaking up over his feet, so light he couldn't even feel them, but he knew that would change. With an effort of will, he froze every molecule of water in the air that made up those shadows. As it does, that ice expanded and the rope shadows shattered, letting Jack jump up and back in the air.

Distance created stillness for a moment as Jack and his opponent reassessed, the shadow spirit drawing breath to speak before heavy steps in the hall interrupted. The haze of emotion clearing, Jack finally registered that Brenna had settled down after the initial scream but she still wasn't being quiet. The fight had taken less than two minutes.

A beefy arm and a scowl were the first things through the door and the other spirit's eyes burned on Jack as he took in whatever terrible thing Jack's face did at the sight of Ted Larkin. Jack couldn't help the frost that coated the floor and caused Ted to slip on his march to the bed, but he regretted it a little when the man snarled, clearly even more enraged, yanking Brenna out of bed by the arm. She shrieked as she came awake falling into the wall, only for Ted to silence her with a punch to the gut that had her gagging, dropping to her knees. The big man grabbed her by the hair, forcing her head up so he could spit into her face, "Shut the fuck up, girl. You wake me up again, there'll be worse than a punch."

Dropping her like garbage, Ted stomped out of the room.

Jack watched Brenna hunch over her arm, muffling wheezing and tears, and ignored the nightmare spirit when he slipped away. Arms wrapping around himself with a mind of their own, Jack knelt on the floor in front of the girl.

Mirroring her hunched over posture, he realized he didn't feel like hitting anyone anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, I'm marking this complete because it's really unlikely I'll ever get back to it, but I will say the possibility is there. I love Jack and Pitch.
> 
> Title from Naomi Shihab Nye's [Kindness](http://www.elise.com/q/naomi.htm).


End file.
